DirecTV Sees Bright Future with Addressable Ads

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – Paul Guyardo, executive vice president and chief revenue and marketing officer for DirecTV, said last week that DirecTV ad sales will grow up to 40 percent during the next four years.

Why the jump? Addressable advertising.

Guyardo explained one example of where a DirecTV addressable media buy is better than a traditional media ad buy: using traditional TV in buying men 25-54 who have an income of $150,000 or more can yield a “true target reach” of 14 million out of a possible 114 million. That’s only a 12.3-percent efficiency. But by making the same buy on DirecTV with an addressable campaign, a marketer can reach 28.6 million – with a buying efficiency of 100 percent.

Since the beginning of this year, DirecTV has initiated some 120 campaigns, which are “real and scaleable,” says Guyardo. Among 90 percent of those deals with marketers, he notes, are clients that have come back a second and third time for other campaigns.

Guyardo says giving clients return-path data, with return on investment results, will increase addressable advertising activity and close the gap in regard to other pay TV distributors ad sales activities.

Guyardo admitted that DirecTV lagged behind other TV distributors – especially cable operators – when it came to selling advertising on the local level.

The new expectation is that DirecTV ad revenues will increase to $750 million by 2016, from $550 million at the end of this year.

Mike White, chairman and chief executive officer of DirecTV, talked up business pushes over a new subscription video on demand service and improved broadband video business.